Warner Oland - Biography, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Filmography (Read)

Warner Oland - biography, date of birth, place of birth, filmography, clips, Actor.
October 3, 1879 - August 6, 1938 - American actor of Swedish descent, best known for his role as detective Charlie Chen. Ouland argued that he owed his vaguely Asiatic appearance to distant relatives with Mongol roots. Although there is no evidence or official confirmation of this, a number of film historians consider it more likely that the actor was of Sami origin. When he was thirteen years old, his family emigrated to the United States. Educated in Boston, Massachusetts. He knew English and Swedish well and had translated several of August Strindberg's plays. As a young man, he pursued a career in theater, pioneering stage design while developing his acting skills. Training as a dramatic actor, in 1906, he signed a tour of the country with a troupe led by actress Alla Nazimova. The following year, he met and married the playwright and portrait painter Edith Gardner Schirn. The brilliant woman became the ideal partner for Ouland: she mastered the Swedish language, helping him with the translation of Strindberg's works, which they jointly published as a separate book in 1912.
After several years in theater, including on Broadway under the name Warner Eland, in 1912 he made his debut in the silent film Pilgrim's Journey, based on the novel by John Bunyan. Three years later, he played a role in the adventure film "The Adventures of Helen" with the popular Pearl White. As a result of his training as a Shakespearean actor and his easy adaptation to a sinister look, he was in demand as a villain and in ethnic roles. He starred in several more films with Pearl White including her 1919 film Lightning Rider, in which he first appeared as an oriental man. Over the next 15 years, he starred in over 30 films, including the role of the father of the protagonist in The Jazz Singer (1927) .
Ouland's Mongoloid features allowed him to easily play the roles of Asian characters; Kay Luke wrote that he did not need makeup, except for "a little goatee stuck to his chin." Given Hollywood's reluctance during this period to hire Asian actors for significant roles (with a few reluctant exceptions: Anna Mae Wong, Sesshu Hayakawa, and Philip Ahn), he portrayed Asian characters in several films before being offered the lead role in the 1929 film Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu, "making the legendary villain of their Sachs Romer book series on-screen. The film's box office success made Ouland a star, and over the next two years, he starred as Dr. Fu Manchu in three more films. Having got used to the character, he starred as Charlie Chen in the detective film "Charlie Chen Leads" (1931), Although Ouland has starred in many other films, his greatest box office success and audience sympathies were with Charlie Chan, which led to the launch of an entire 16-film series that kept Fox afloat in the 1930s. The actor, who received $ 40,000 for each film, took his role seriously and studied Chinese and calligraphy. Ouland was also the first actor to star in one of the first major Hollywood films on the subject, The London Werewolf (1935), in which he played a werewolf biting the protagonist, played by Henry Hull. Despite his wealth and success, Ouland suffered from alcoholism, which seriously affected his health and his thirty-year marriage. In January 1937 he began filming Charlie Chen in the Ring. However, after a week of filming, his behavior led to his dismissal and filming was discontinued. After hospital treatment, he signed a new three-year contract with Fox in the sequel to Charlie Chen. At the same time, he was involved in a divorce proceedings with his wife, as a result of which he lost most of his fortune. It was also his ability to go abroad as a legal order prevented him from Traveling and moving his assets abroad. Around this time, he was involved in an incident when, after ordering his chauffeur to take him to Mexico, he demanded a stopover during his rest. to sit on the steps of your car and throw your shoes at the audience. The divorce (the court ruled in favor of his wife) was announced in the newspapers on April 2, 1938, and on the same day he left the country by ship. He toured southern Europe, after which he returned to his native Sweden, where he stayed with a friend who is an architect. In Sweden, Ouland contracted bronchial pneumonia, aggravated by emphysema due to years of smoking, and died in a hospital in Stockholm. Ouland's last film was the unfinished Charlie Chen in the Ring. Fox re-shot scenes with Peter Lorre and released the finished film as Mr. Moto's Gamble (1938). Warner Ouland and his wife made their main residence on a historic farm near Southboro, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. After being cremated in Sweden, his ashes were brought to the United States by his wife to be buried at Southboro Country Cemetery.

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Author: Jane Watson